Farmers get probation in fatal listeria outbreak

Wednesday

Jan 29, 2014 at 12:01 AMJan 29, 2014 at 11:39 AM

DENVER - Two Colorado cantaloupe farmers were sentenced yesterday to five years of probation and six months of home detention for a listeria outbreak in 2011 - the deadliest case of foodborne illness in the nation in a quarter century.

DENVER — Two Colorado cantaloupe farmers were sentenced yesterday to five years of probation and six months of home detention for a listeria outbreak in 2011 — the deadliest case of foodborne illness in the nation in a quarter century.

A federal magistrate also ordered brothers Eric and Ryan Jensen to each pay $150,000 in restitution and perform 100 hours of community service. Each apologized in a statement.

They pleaded guilty last year to misdemeanor counts of introducing adulterated food into interstate commerce and faced up to up to six years in prison and $1.5 million in fines.

The outbreak caused 33 deaths, none in Ohio, and sickened 147 people in 28 states. Relatives of seven of those who died testified during the hearing, with some asking for probation but others asking for prison time for the brothers.

Patricia Hauser, who lost her husband, asked Judge Magistrate Michael E. Hegarty to sentence both brothers to prison and a fine.

She described her husband’s slow and agonizing death. “The look of terror on his face still gives me nightmares,” she said.

Paul Schwarz said his father, also named Paul — a World War II veteran with two Purple Hearts — died at the age of 92.

“I never would have guessed that someone everyone regarded as a real American hero would die from something he ate,” Schwarz said.

Hegarty made a point of saying he was not sentencing either brother to prison or to pay a fine so that they could continue working to support their own families and pay restitution.

Federal investigators said the melons likely were contaminated in the farm’s packing house by dirty water on the floor and old, hard-to-clean equipment. The Jensens said their operation was given a “superior” rating just a month before the outbreak by their independent auditors, whom they have sued.

The Jensens have met with the families of the victims and said that any money they get from the civil suit will go to the victims of the outbreak.

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